A project by Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre has won the top Premier’s Recognition Award in the Premier’s Sustainability Awards 2013 for introducing recycling to a community housing estate. The Ascot Vale Housing Estate Household Recycling project defied previous failed attempts to introduce recycling and established a successful, ground-breaking model using targeted and broad-ranging community engagement of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and lower Socio Economic Status (SES) groups.

The project won the Community category of the awards and then went on to win the night’s overall award. […]

Sustainability Victoria CEO, Stan Krpan, congratulated the Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre project team for their innovative work which delivered recycling to estate’s residents, of whom 55 per cent were born overseas. “A key initiative of this project was the focus on engaging residents from many cultural backgrounds with varying competency in English, in the importance of recycling,” he said. In its first six months, 52 tonnes of recyclables were recovered. Three of the 11 residents who worked on the project secured jobs as a result of their experience.

Now in their eleventh year, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards celebrate efficient use of water, resources and energy, better waste management and recycling practices, the enhancement of the environment and effective, practical community action. The full list of winners of the Premier’s Sustainability Awards 2013 are:

• The Premier’s Recognition Award – Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre, taking recycling to public housing residents • The Premier’s Regional Recognition Award – Victoria Carpets, for their work in energy and emissions reduction in their Bendigo plant • Innovative Products or Services Award – ModWood Technologies for development of Flame Shield®, a wood-plastic composite for building in bushfire areas • Infrastructure and Buildings Award – RMIT University for their Swanston Academic Building: a progressive tertiary learning environment • Environmental Protection Award – Mallee Catchment Management Authority’s project: Restoring the balance in the drought-riven Hattah Lakes • Education Award – Bentleigh Secondary College – a world recognised, very sustainable school • Small and Medium Enterprises Award – Rae-Line for embedding sustainability practices in manufacturing soft trim components for trucks • Large Business Award – Victoria Carpets • Community Award – Moonee Valley City Council and Wingate Avenue Community Centre.

From ‘Be part of it’ buy SIXAUS: The Changemakers Festival [presented by TACSI] is a celebration of the great work happening in our community, an exploration of the ideas, techniques and technologies that are driving this change, and an invitation for everyone to get involved in creating a better future for their community and our nation. It kicks off in November and works as a ‘distributed festival’, which means that hundreds of Australia’s leading thinkers and organisations will be holding events across every state and territory. There’ll be conferences, meetups, startup weekends, webinars, workshops, and plenty more.

Over the last 10 years, Australia has exploded as a hub of social change. Driven by technology, and inspired by local and international success stories, the social innovation community is starting to tackle some of our toughest social challenges and answer some of our biggest questions. What is the good life? What is Australia’s place in our region and the world? How can we respond to climate change, to refugees, to the changing nature of employment and family? The Changemakers Festival brings these ideas out in the open and encourages strong discussion, cross-sector collaboration, and concrete action to drive social change.

In due course we’ll be sharing the full program with you, but the important question for now is, why not organise and host an event yourself? The Changemakers Festival is a chance to bring people together, to create community, share knowledge, foster collaboration and inspire imagination. If you have an idea for something for your community we’d love to hear it!

And if youneed to raise some funds to make your idea a reality you’ll be interested in the Changemakers Festival Crowdfunding Challenge on StartSomeGood, which is offering over $5,000 in bonus funds to those running crowdfunding campaigns to fuel Changemakers Festival events. But if you want to take advantage of this opportunity you need to be quick! You’ll need to submit your idea by this Friday and be ready to launch your campaign by August 21 to be part of it. You’ll have help from us and from the StartSomeGood team to make it happen though! (More about the challenge here: http://bit.ly/CMFchallenge)

>>>> The Change makers festival kicks off on the 1st – 10th November 2013 >>>> TACSI and SIXAUS who are they?

Individuals, businesses, community or government groups who have shown commitment to sustainability are encouraged to enter the Premier’s Sustainability Awards as positive role models for all Victorians. Now in their 11th year, the Premier’s Sustainability Awards celebrate efficient use of water, resources and energy, better waste management and recycling practices, the enhancement of the environment and effective, practical community action. The winner of last year’s Premier’s Sustainability Awards, Brightgreen, is urging Victorians who have developed a sustainable product or service to enter this year’s awards program, saying “it is a real thrill to be recognised on a state level… We entered the awards last year because they celebrate sustainable innovation – the whole driving force behind Brightgreen. We’re on a mission not just to make the most efficient or the brightest light but to actually change the way people think about lighting – encouraging them to see it as investment rather than something that’s disposable,” said Brightgreen Co-founder and CEO, David O’Driscoll. “The Premier’s Sustainability Awards align perfectly with everything that we set out to achieve.”

CEO of Sustainability Victoria, Stan Krpan, said that the awards are a great way to recognise and celebrate leadership in sustainability. This year the awards provide even more opportunities for recognition. Entries are open in eight categories: Infrastructure and Buildings, Tourism, Environmental Protection, Education, Innovative Product and Services, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME), Large Business, and Community.

The Alternative Technology Association’s (ATA) Consumer Guide to Smart Meters helps households and small businesses understand and take advantage of products and services associated with smart meters. The guide provides easy-to-understand information. Some of the smart meter products and services exist now, and some are expected to become available in the next two to three years.

“Choose Tap” aims to promote the benefits of drinking tap water as part of a healthy lifestyle and as a positive alternative to bottled water. More than a billion people worldwide do not have access to safe drinking water – but sometimes in Australia we take our quality tap water for granted.

We spend more than $500 million a year on bottled water, which is not only putting greater strain on the environment, it’s an expense we could easily avoid. Melburnians are rightly proud of our tap water, which is primarily sourced from protected natural catchments and requires very little treatment before we drink it. As many have discovered after a trip interstate or overseas, our water is great to drink!

Medical experts agree that during summer, people should drink at least 8 glasses of water per day – more if they have been exercising or outdoors. Water is the best source of hydration and is calorie free – and of course it is an absolute bargain compared to any other drink.

Yarra Valley Water through the Choose Tap program is working in partnership with cafes and restaurants that serve tap water to their customers. Many cafes and restaurants are already serving tap water, as after all, Melbourne has some of the best tasting drinking water in the world!

As part of the program, Yarra Valley Water is providing participating cafes with Choose Tap glass water bottles, fact sheets for customers and staff, as well as a Choose Tap shop front sticker to recognise that they serve tap water.

The program is being launched in High Street Northcote as well as selected businesses across our service area with the scope to roll out across the Yarra Valley Water district (from Stonnington in the South East across to the Yarra Ranges and up North to Wallan) in 2013.

Sustainable Melbourne’s mothership, the Victorian Eco-Innovation Lab (VEIL) has become a Green Apes Jungle Guardian (!!!) and so we’re doing a shout-out to our networks to let you know that the Green Apes app is now available online.

We (VEIL) are pretty interested in behaviour change tools that are appealing, fun, or just not mind-numbingly terrifying. A quick look at the YouTube video and the website indicates that this app might be quite fun to use, although it’s pretty new (version 1.1) and may have a few issues. It also requires a facebook log-in. What will be really interesting is what happens if/when it reaches a large audience of users and glitches get ironed out. Unexpected (and hopefully awesome) results should follow.

Paper production is the main driver of native forest logging in Australia. Native forest logging destroys crucial habitat for our native wildlife, degrades water catchments and releases vast amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

The main domestic purchaser of native forest pulp logs in Victoria is Australian Paper. Australian Paper produces Reflex brand office papers. Companies and individuals that have taken the Ethical Paper Pledge are making a commitment not to purchase Reflex papers until Australian Paper commits to moving out of irreplaceable native forests and into plantation resources. This will send a strong message to Australian Paper that it is time to move towards a sustainable future.

To sign the Ethical Paper Pledge or to find out more, please visit www.ethicalpaper.com.au or send an email to mail@ethicalpaper.com.au. —

Australia’s largest sustainable living celebration is back with a jam-packed program with more than 300 events over two weeks across Victoria. This year’s diverse program includes delightfully different perspectives bound to challenge, engage and inspire action. As a guide to this ocean of events, we hope this blog post will help you navigate the program better.

Big Weekend: At the heart of the Festival, the Big Weekend program at Federation Square on 15 -17 Feb includes high quality food for thought in The Great Debate, influential thought leaders, such as Annie Leonard behind the widespread online animation The Story of Stuff, and a laughter guarantee at the Steaming Toad Variety Show with HG Nelson and Dan Ilic. By buying a ticket to these key Festival events, curated by the Festival’s operations team itself, you’re supporting the future of this non-profit Festival. Other event highlights of this year’s Big Weekend program we are really excited about bringing to you include Jason Roberts’ Better Block Keynote, The World’s Biggest Organic Feast hosted by ABC TV’s Costa Georgiadis, the Fix it! Workshop. While forums, talks and interactives like The Heat is On, Activating Community Energy, Playing God with the Planet, Green Inventors, The Gratitude Box and No Place like Homelands are sure to inspire and educate. Over the Big Weekend, Birrarung Marr and River Promenade are transformed into a bustling mini-village, complete with The Green Market and Bikefest Treadlie Market. In the weekend’s open community program stream, there’s a multitude of exhibitions, forums, kids activities, performances and workshops to discover.

Melbourne CBD: The second layer of the Festival takes place across Melbourne’s CBD, as the city comes to life with events throughout 9 – 24 Feb. This year, the Sustainable Living Festival, together with City of Melbourne and CrowdSpot, are launching My EcoCity Map, a collaborative online map for residents and visitors to capture and share sustainable projects, events, shops and organisations in the city. Check out the map and add you own favourite EcoCity spots! As part of the Festival’s film program, the Transition Film Festival kicks off on 15 Feb and runs til 24 Feb with solutions focused movies at several cinemas across town. Sign up to be part of the nationwide synchronised screening of Transition 2.0, a movie that tells an inspiring story of Transition Towns initiatives from around the world.

Statewide: In the second week of the statewide Festival program, the Festival’s first ever regional Victorian tour program – The Better Block Tour – heads out to regional locations (18 – 24 Feb) to help kickstart a revitalization of neighborhoods and communities across Victoria by inspiring, connecting and supporting local changemakers. Across the State of Victoria, there are a huge range of events taking place, feeding conversations and generating new ideas on how you can find and create your own ‘state of sustainability’!

MARIO Giannattilio’s dream to convert a petrol car with his son Michael has become an electric reality. The pair set themselves a goal to convert a clapped-out, petrol-thirsty Ford Capri into a silent, emission-free electric car. In its infancy, the project was featured by Fairfax Media last year, as the Giannattilios worked on the conversion in their home garage at Glen Iris. They are part of a small but growing number of backyard technology and environment enthusiasts who are converting petrol cars to electric power in their sheds and garages.

Armed with advice on potential pitfalls from the Alternative Technology Association’s electric vehicles interest group, the Giannattilios set themselves a deadline of 100 weekends to complete their project. The car itself was ready in 96 weekends and, after a few bureaucratic hurdles, it is now registered for the road. ”I think it’s because authorities are used to dealing with petrol cars and used to dealing with hybrid cars, but not with fully electric cars,” Mr Giannattilio said. ”There was a lot of head scratching because it is unusual to have a fully electric car.” When new cars are built, manufacturers place a serial number on a combustion engine, but replacing the original motor with an electric motor poses challenges with the number. ”We were aware that it would come up as an issue and kept the [electric] engine’s serial number, which was accepted as part of the registration,” Mr Giannattilio said.

The last hurdle was at a VicRoads office, where Mr Giannattilio tried to claim $100 off the registration cost, a benefit hybrid car owners enjoy. ”They weren’t going to give me the $100 off, which is ridiculous because my car uses no petrol and a hybrid still uses some petrol,” Mr Giannattilio said. He eventually got the discount, but only after registering the car as a hybrid.

Michael, 13, hopes to be an engineer and will study physics at high school next year. Mr Giannattilio said the project gave his son hands-on experience of how physics is applied in the real world. Michael will already know about LED refracted light, used in newer BMWs, after the pair put it into their Ford Capri’s bumper bar. ”Michael can’t wait to drive it, but he is only 13, so it will have to be on a track,” Mr Giannattilio said. He said he was close to his son and the joint project gave them an opportunity to talk about much more than electricity and mechanics. ”When you are working together and talking about the work you are doing, you get to talk about things that happen in life outside the garage. The bond obviously becomes stronger,” he said.